A light emitting diode (LED) has been widely used as a light source of a vehicle lamp. By using the LED as a light source of a headlamp, it is possible to reduce the power consumption of the vehicle lamp compared to the cases where a halogen lamp or a high intensity discharge (HID) lamp is used. In addition, a headlamp using an LED for a light emitting unit, including a low beam unit that irradiates light to a lower side of a cutoff line and a high beam unit that irradiates light to an upper side of the cutoff line, is also proposed (see, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2010-143447 or the like).
In such a headlamp, when there are many opportunities to cross the oncoming vehicles, only the low beam unit is turned ON and light is not irradiated to the upper side of the cutoff line, thereby suppressing the disturbance of the driver of the oncoming vehicle (low mode). When there are less opportunities to cross the oncoming vehicles, the low beam unit and the high beam unit are simultaneously turned ON such that the light is irradiated further away to make it possible to favorably recognize a wide area (high mode).